RIO DE JANEIRO -- Visiting with a group of recovering addicts in a Brazilian hospital Wednesday night, Pope Francis criticized the regional push to legalize drugs, saying society must instead tackle root causes of substance abuse such as the lack of education and justice. Dressed in his simple white cassock and returning to this city from a daylong pilgrimage to one of Catholicism's most revered shrines, Francis greeted doctors, nuns, nurses and patients, some waiting in wheelchairs in a driving rain.

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Visiting with a group of recovering addicts in a Brazilian hospital Wednesday night, Pope Francis criticized the regional push to legalize drugs, saying society must instead tackle root causes of substance abuse such as the lack of education and justice. Dressed in his simple white cassock and returning to this city from a daylong pilgrimage to one of Catholicism's most revered shrines, Francis greeted doctors, nuns, nurses and patients, some waiting in wheelchairs in a driving rain.

The Summit of the Americas is more often a photo opportunity than a forum for bold policy initiatives. When issues of substance are discussed, the meeting of the hemisphere's 34 leaders has generally yielded more clashes than regional pacts. But some saw a chance for a little more action this year when leaders from several Latin American countries came to this weekend's summit in the Colombian seaside city of Cartagena complaining of drug war fatigue. Over the last six months, that weariness has been spreading throughout Latin America.

Regarding your editorial comments on legalization of drugs ("Legalization, No; Policy Overhaul, Yes" Jan. 4): Your solid stand against drug legalization is remarkable considering the number of commentaries that have appeared in The Times since Judge (James P.) Gray initially proposed legalization several years ago. I had hoped you would have been more convinced by the logical arguments that have been presented in favor of legalization. It is incredible that our society has not learned the lessons of Prohibition and continues to repeat that failure of history.

April 13, 2012 | By Christi Parsons and Brian Bennett, Los Angeles Times

CARTAGENA, Colombia - President Obama will highlight trade and business opportunities in Latin America at a regional summit in Colombia this weekend, but other leaders may upstage him by pushing to legalize marijuana and other illicit drugs in a bid to stem rampant trafficking. Obama, who opposes decriminalization, is expected to face a rocky reception in this Caribbean resort city, which otherwise forms a friendly backdrop for a U.S. president courting Latino voters in an election year.

Marijuana and other illicit drugs would be legalized in California under proposedinitiatives now cleared for circulation among voters, Secretary of State March Fong Eu announced. Petitions bearing the signatures of 372,178 registered voters must be submitted to county election officials by June 29 to qualify each of the measures for the November ballot, Eu said.

Hours before the Stanford-Notre Dame football game Oct. 7, a relaxed and candid George P. Shultz, wearing a Stanford-red polo shirt, outlined some of his philosophical ideas to a group of alumni of the Stanford Business School at Memorial Auditorium in Palo Alto. "Now that I am out of government I can say this," the former secretary of state began, speaking thoughtfully.

President Vicente Fox reversed course Wednesday and decided not to sign a drug legalization bill that critics on both sides of the border said would turn Mexico into a narcotics haven. Fox administration officials had said Tuesday that the president would sign the bill, which set generous limits for the possession of cocaine, heroin, marijuana, opium, amphetamines and several natural and synthetic hallucinogens.

The vote in Glenn Ward's seventh-grade reading class at Anacapa Middle School on Monday was 11 to 5 not to legalize drugs. As part of the BE COOL program, Ventura Police Officer Juan Reynoso had assigned students to debate the issue after researching arguments for each side. At the end of the presentations, the class took a vote.

April 13, 2012 | By Christi Parsons and Brian Bennett, Los Angeles Times

CARTAGENA, Colombia - President Obama will highlight trade and business opportunities in Latin America at a regional summit in Colombia this weekend, but other leaders may upstage him by pushing to legalize marijuana and other illicit drugs in a bid to stem rampant trafficking. Obama, who opposes decriminalization, is expected to face a rocky reception in this Caribbean resort city, which otherwise forms a friendly backdrop for a U.S. president courting Latino voters in an election year.

Prohibition — America's notoriously "failed social experiment" to rid the country of alcohol — took center stage this week as PBS broadcast Ken Burns' highly acclaimed series on the subject. And already, it has been seized on by drug legalization advocates, who say it proves that drug prohibition should be abandoned. But a closer look at what resulted from alcohol prohibition and its relevance to today's anti-drug effort reveals a far more nuanced picture than the legalization lobby might like to admit.

Rep. Ron Paul, a Texas Republican, is running for president for a third time. The libertarian-leading congressman said in an interview Friday that voters are increasingly embracing his brand of conservatism “The people are agreeing with much I have been saying for 30 years,” Paul said, making his announcement from Manchester, N.H., on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” "The time is right. " Paul, 75, who has finished strongly in several Republican straw polls, has an ardent, if small, fan base.

Despite Proposition 19's loss at the polls last week, marijuana legalization advocates in California are already working on their comeback plan for 2012 and are almost giddy about their prospects. They see the election as a trial run that could lead to a campaign with a better message, a tighter measure and more money. Both the winning and losing sides say California's voters rejected this specific initiative, but remain open to legalizing the easily obtainable drug. The proponents have a huge head start compared to where they were two years ago. At that time, regulating and taxing marijuana was the dream of a handful of Oakland activists.

June 7, 2009 | Brian O'Dea, Brian O'Dea, one of the biggest marijuana smugglers in U.S. history, is also a reformed addict and a former drug counselor. He is now a film and television producer and the author of the just-published "High: Confessions of an International Drug Smuggler."

When President Obama was asked in March whether he thought legalizing marijuana could help solve the nation's financial problems, his answer was unequivocal. "No, I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our economy," he said. But his response is unlikely to quell debate on an issue that polarizes Americans. Even academic studies that purport to be unbiased arrive at very different conclusions. Here are three viewpoints on why the country should or should not decriminalize the drug.

Today, Sullum and Stimson begin their Dust-Up by comparing drug decriminalization and legalization. Later in the week, they'll discuss drug-related violence, federal raids of marijuana dispensaries and more. Prohibition didn't work then; it isn't working now By Jacob Sullum The main disadvantage of "drug legalization" is the implication that the natural course of things, the default position, is for the government to dictate which substances people may put into their bodies.

President Vicente Fox reversed course Wednesday and decided not to sign a drug legalization bill that critics on both sides of the border said would turn Mexico into a narcotics haven. Fox administration officials had said Tuesday that the president would sign the bill, which set generous limits for the possession of cocaine, heroin, marijuana, opium, amphetamines and several natural and synthetic hallucinogens.